how to write an essay on dr jekyll and mr hyde

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

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Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Introduction

Dr. jekyll and mr. hyde: plot summary, dr. jekyll and mr. hyde: detailed summary & analysis, dr. jekyll and mr. hyde: themes, dr. jekyll and mr. hyde: quotes, dr. jekyll and mr. hyde: characters, dr. jekyll and mr. hyde: symbols, dr. jekyll and mr. hyde: literary devices, dr. jekyll and mr. hyde: quizzes, dr. jekyll and mr. hyde: theme wheel, brief biography of robert louis stevenson.

Historical Context of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Other books related to dr. jekyll and mr. hyde.

• Full Title: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
• When Written: 1885
• Where Written: Bournemouth, England
• When Published: 5th January 1886
• Literary Period: Victorian
• Genre: Horror, Drama, Victorian Gothic
• Setting: The streets of London
• Climax: Utterson reads the narrative written by Lanyon before his death, which describes the horrific bodily transformation of Mr. Hyde into Dr. Jekyll, explaining everything that has happened so far in an absolutely incredible way.
• Antagonist: Mr. Hyde forms the antagonist of the tale until we realize that he is in fact the double of Dr. Jekyll.
• Point of View: A third person narrator tells the story with an omniscient view of characters but stays mostly with Mr. Utterson, which allows Stevenson to reveal things to the reader with suspense.

Extra Credit for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Strange Beginnings. Robert Louis Stevenson reportedly wrote the draft of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in an astonishing three days in a drug-induced fever.

Expensive Taste. Robert Louis Stevenson was known as “Velvet Jaket” as a young man because of his dandy-fied taste in clothes.

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: Analysis and Themes

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

The story for Jekyll and Hyde famously came to Robert Louis Stevenson in a dream, and according to Stevenson’s stepson, Lloyd Osbourne, Stevenson wrote the first draft of the novella in just three days, before promptly throwing it onto the fire when his wife criticised it. Stevenson then rewrote it from scratch, taking ten days this time, and the novella was promptly published in January 1886.

The story is part detective-story or mystery, part Gothic horror, and part science fiction, so it’s worth analysing how Stevenson fuses these different elements.

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: analysis

Now it’s time for some words of analysis about Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic 1886 novella. However, perhaps ‘analyses’ (plural) would be more accurate, since there never could be one monolithic meaning of a story so ripe with allegory and suggestive symbolism.

Like another novella that was near-contemporary with Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde , and possibly influenced by it ( H. G. Wells’s The Time Machine ), the symbols often point in several different directions at once.

Any attempt to reduce Stevenson’s story of doubling to a moral fable about drugs or drink, or a tale about homosexuality, is destined to lose sight of the very thing which makes the novella so relevant to so many people: its multifaceted quality. So here are some (and they are only some) of the many interpretations of Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde which have been put forward in the last 120 years or so.

A psychoanalytic or proto-psychoanalytic analysis

In this interpretation, Jekyll is the ego and Hyde the id (in Freud’s later terminology). The ego is the self in Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, while the id is the set of primal drives found in our unconscious: the urge to kill, or do inappropriate sexual things, for instance.

Several of Robert Louis Stevenson’s essays, such as ‘A Chapter on Dreams’ (1888), prefigure some of Freud’s later ideas; and there was increasing interest in the workings of the human mind towards the end of the nineteenth century (two leading journals in the field, Brain and Mind , had both been founded in the 1870s).

The psychoanalytic interpretation is a popular one with many readers of Jekyll and Hyde , and since the novella is clearly about repression of some sort, one can make a psychoanalytic interpretation – an analysis grounded in psychoanalysis, if you like – quite convincingly.

It might be significant, reading the story from a post-Freudian perspective, that Hyde is described as childlike at several points: does he embody Jekyll’s – and, indeed, man’s – deep desire to return to a time before responsibility and full maturity, when one was freer to act on impulse? Early infancy is the formative period for much Freudian psychoanalysis.

Recall the empty middle-class scenes at the beginning of the book: Utterson and Enfield on their joyless Sunday walks, for instance. Hyde attacks father-figures (Sir Danvers Carew, the MP whom he murders, is a white-haired old gentleman), which would fall in line with Freud’s concept of the Oedipus complex and Jekyll’s desire to return to a time before adult life with its responsibilities and disappointments.

However, one fly in the Oedipal ointment is that Hyde also attacks a young girl – almost the complete opposite of the ‘old man’ or father figure embodied by Danvers Carew.

Nevertheless, psychoanalytic readings of the novella have been popular for some time, and it’s worth remembering that the idea for the book came to Stevenson in a dream. Observe, also, the presence of dreams and dreamlike scenes in the novel itself, such as when Jekyll remarks that he ‘received Lanyon’s condemnation partly in a dream; it was partly in a dream that I came home to my own house and got into bed’.

An anti-alcohol morality tale?

Alternatively, a different interpretation: we might analyse these dreamlike aspects of the novel in another way and see the novel as being about alcoholism and temperance , subjects which were being fiercely debated at the time Stevenson was writing.

Here, then, the ‘transforming draught’ which Jekyll concocts represents alcohol, and Jekyll, upon imbibing the draught, becomes a violent, unpredictable person unknown even to himself. (This reading has been most thoroughly explored in Thomas L. Reed’s 2006 study The Transforming Draught .)

Note how often wine crops up in this short book: it turns up first of all in the second sentence of the novella, when Utterson is found sipping it, and Hyde, we learn, has a closet ‘filled with wine’. Might the continual presence of wine be a clue that we are all Hydes waiting to happen? Note how the opening paragraph informs us that Utterson drinks gin when he is alone.

This thesis – that the novella is about alcohol and temperance – is intriguing, but has been contested by critics such as Julia Reid for being too speculative and reductionist: see her review of The Transforming Draught in The Review of English Studies , 2007.

The ‘drugs’ interpretation

Similarly, the idea that the ‘draught’ is a metaphor for some other drug, whether opium or cocaine . Scholars are unsure as to whether Stevenson was on drugs when he wrote the book: some accounts say Stevenson used cocaine to finish the manuscript; others say he took ergot, which is the substance from which LSD was later synthesised. Some say he was too sick to be taking anything.

You could purchase cocaine and opium from your local chemist in 1880s London (indeed, another invention of 1886, Coca-Cola, originally contained cocaine, as the drink’s name still testifies: don’t worry, it doesn’t any more).

This is essentially a development of the previous interpretation concerning alcohol, and arguably has similar limitations in being too restrictive an interpretation. However, note the way that Jekyll, in his ‘full statement’ becomes reliant on the ‘draught’ or ‘salt’ towards the end.

A religious analysis

As such, the story has immediate links with the story Stevenson would write sixty years later. Stevenson was an atheist who managed to escape the constrictive religion of his parents, but he remained haunted by Calvinistic doctrines for the rest of his life, and much of his work can be seen as an attempt to grapple with these issues which had affected and afflicted him so much as a child.

The sexuality interpretation

Some critics have interpreted Jekyll and Hyde in light of late nineteenth-century attitudes to sexuality : note the almost total absence of women from the story, barring the odd maid and ‘old hag’, and that hapless girl trampled underfoot by Hyde.

Some critics have suggested that the idea of blackmail for homosexual acts lurks behind the story, and the novella itself mentions this when Enfield tells Utterson that he refers to the house of Mr Hyde as ‘Black Mail House’ as a consequence of the girl-trampling scene in the street.

As such, the novella becomes an allegory for the double life lived by many homosexual Victorian men, who had to hide (or Hyde ) their illicit liaisons from their friends and families. The poet Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote to his friend Robert Bridges that the girl-trampling incident early on in the narrative was ‘perhaps a convention: he was thinking of something unsuitable for fiction’.

Some have interpreted this statement – by Hopkins, himself a repressed homosexual – as a reference to homosexual activity in late Victorian London.

Consider in this connection the fact that Hyde enters Jekyll’s house through the ‘back way’ – even, at one point ‘the back passage’. 1885, the year Stevenson wrote the book, was the year of the Criminal Law Amendment Act (commonly known as the Labouchere Amendment ), which criminalised acts of ‘gross indecency’ between men (this was the act which, ten years later, would put Oscar Wilde in gaol).

However, we should be wary of reading the text as about ‘homosexual panic’, since, as Harry Cocks points out, homosexuality was frequently ‘named openly, publicly and repeatedly’ in nineteenth-century criminal courts. But then could fiction for a mass audience as readily name such things?

A Darwinian analysis

Charles Darwin’s book On the Origin of Species , which laid out the theory of evolution by natural selection, had been published in 1859, when Stevenson was still a child. In this reading, Hyde represents the primal, animal origin of modern, civilised man.

Consider here the repeated uses of the word ‘apelike’ in relation to Hyde, suggesting he is an atavistic throwback to an earlier, more primitive species of man than Homo sapiens . This reading incorporates theories of something called ‘devolution’, an idea (now discredited) which suggested that life forms could actually evolve backwards into more primitive forms.

This is also linked with late Victorian fears concerning degeneration and decadence among the human race. Is Jekyll’s statement that he ‘bore the stamp, of lower elements in my soul’ an allusion to Charles Darwin’s famous phrase from the end of The Descent of Man (1871), ‘man […] bears […] the indelible stamp of his lowly origin’?

In his story ‘Olalla’, another tale of the double which Stevenson published in 1885, he writes: ‘Man has risen; if he has sprung from the brutes he can descend to the same level again’.

This Darwinian analysis of Jekyll and Hyde could incorporate elements of the sexual which the previous interpretation also touches upon, but would view the novel as a portrayal of man’s – and we mean specifically man ’s here – repression of the darker, violent, primitive side of his nature associated with rape, pillage, conquest, and murder.

This looks back to a psychoanalytic reading, with the ‘id’ being the home of primal sexual desire and lust. The girl-tramping scene may take on another significance here: it’s a ‘girl’ rather than a boy because it symbolises Hyde’s animalistic desire to conquer and brutalise someone of the opposite, not the same, sex.

There have been many critical readings of the novella in relation to sex and sexuality, but it’s important to point out that Stevenson denied that the novella was about sexuality (see below).

A study in hypocrisy?

Or perhaps not: perhaps there is something in the idea that hypocrisy is the novella’s theme , as Stevenson himself suggested in a letter of November 1887 to John Paul Bocock, editor of the New York Sun : ‘The harm was in Jekyll,’ Stevenson wrote, ‘because he was a hypocrite – not because he was fond of women; he says so himself; but people are so filled full of folly and inverted lust, that they can think of nothing but sexuality. The Hypocrite let out the beast’.

This analysis of Jekyll and Hyde sees the two sides to Jekyll’s personality as a portrayal of the dualistic nature of Victorian society, where you must be respectable and civilised on the outside, while all the time harbouring an inward lust, violence, and desire which you have to bring under control.

This was a popular theme for many late nineteenth-century writers – witness not only Oscar Wilde’s 1891 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray but also the double lives of Jack and Algernon in Wilde’s comedy of manners, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). This is a more open-ended interpretation, and the novella does appear to be about repression of some sort.

In this respect, this interpretation is similar to the psychoanalytic reading proposed above, but it also tallies with Stevenson’s own assertion that the story is about hypocrisy. Everyone in this book is masking their private thoughts or desires from others.

Note how even the police officer, Inspector Newcomen, when he learns of the murder of the MP, goes from being horrified one moment to excited the next, as ‘the next moment his eye lighted up with professional ambition’. He can barely contain his glee. The maid who answers the door at Hyde’s rooms has ‘an evil face, smoothed by hypocrisy; but her manners were excellent’.

From these clues, we can also posit a reading of the novel which sees it as about the class structure of late nineteenth-century Britain, where Jekyll represents the comfortable middle class and Hyde is the repressed – or, indeed, oppressed – working-class figure.

Note here, however, how Hyde is repeatedly described as a ‘gentleman’ by those who see him, and that he attacks Danvers Carew with a ‘cane’, rather than, say, a club (though it is reported, tellingly, that he ‘clubbed’ Carew to death with it).

A scientific interpretation

The reference to the evil maid with excellent manners places Jekyll’s own duality at the extreme end of a continuum, where everyone is putting on a respectable and acceptable mask which hides or conceals the evil truth lurking behind it. So we might see Jekyll’s scientific experiment as merely a physical embodiment of what everyone does.

This leads some critics to ask, then, whether the novella about the misuse of science . Or is the ‘tincture’ merely a scientific, chemical composition because a magical draught or elixir would be unbelievable to an 1880s reader? Arthur Machen, an author who was much influenced by Stevenson and especially by Jekyll and Hyde , made this point in a letter of 1894, when he grumbled:

In these days the supernatural per se is entirely incredible; to believe, we must link our wonders to some scientific or pseudo-scientific fact, or basis, or method. Thus we do not believe in ‘ghosts’ but in telepathy, not in ‘witch-craft’ but in hypnotism. If Mr Stevenson had written his great masterpiece about 1590-1650, Dr Jekyll would have made a compact with the devil. In 1886 Dr Jekyll sends to the Bond Street chemists for some rare drugs.

This is worth pondering: the use of the ‘draught’ lends the story an air of scientific authenticity, which makes the story a form of science fiction rather than fantasy: the tincture which Jekyll drinks is not magical, merely a chemical potion of some vaguely defined sort. But to say that the story is actually about the dangers of misusing science could be a leap too far.

We run the risk of confusing the numerous film adaptations of the book with the book itself: we immediately picture wild-haired soot-faced scientists causing explosions and mixing up potions in a dark laboratory, but in fact this is not really what the story is about , merely the means through which the real meat of the story – the transformation of Jekyll into Hyde – is effected.

It’s only once this split has been achieved that the real story, about the dark side of man’s nature which he represses, comes to light. (Compare Frankenstein here .)

All of these interpretations of Jekyll and Hyde can be – and have been – proposed, but it’s worth bearing in mind that the popularity of Stevenson’s tale may lie in the very polyvalent and ambiguous nature of the text, the fact that it exists as a symbol without a key, a riddle without a definitive answer.

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Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde Essay

Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, speaks about a person with a split personality. It tells of a person leading two parallel ways of life. At one time, he is a being but at other times, he has a different personality all together.

At one time, he is a human, exhibiting human nature and character but at another moment, he is an ogre trampling on children and killing innocent people. Robert Louis’s novel presents a misanthropic view and a general disregard for human nature.

His work leans towards a general disliking of human nature, which is shared by a few other misanthropists who have expressed this through their satirical writings. A good example is Moliere’s Character, Alceste, in a 1666 play. Alceste states that his hate is general. He hates all men because some are evil and filled with wicked deeds, and hates others because of their permissiveness towards the wicked.

This is a story that is perceived from varying angles and perspectives. The novel tells a story about one doctor with split personality. The story dissects the existence of duality within the life of a person or basically the duality of human nature.

Robert Louis suggests that within every human, there exists the evil and the perfectly human and good side. As a consequence, the bad nature is occasionally cast upon the human side. Dr. Jekyll is one person who has continuously veiled a life featuring wicked and evil acts and he feels like he is always fighting within himself.

He was wondering what side of him to expose and at what time 1 (Stevenson 132). He happens to scientifically create a concoction that has the supernatural ability of transforming him from one side of his dual nature to the other. However, after taking it for a longer time, he realizes that he does not need the portion in order to transform. This is a fact that eventually brings him down.

The Victorian norms dictated that things had to happen with due consideration to class, and no class was to overlap the other in its areas of operation. The class system demanded that issues leadership, governance and politics be left to the upper class.

To the upper class, Mr. Hyde represents the working class. To them, the working class does not consist of gentlemen but rather people of no status. This relation shows how the story challenges the Victorians’ ideas on a political platform.

This novel, as most philosophers and literary persons argue, was meant or rather the events in the novel were a forecast on what was to be the situation in Victorian England, which is the setting place for the novel.

One very outstanding modern world challenge as manifested in the novel is scientific research. Some scientific researches are carried out by unscrupulous scientists who have ill intentions with their discoveries just like Mr. Hyde in the novel.

The modern world is faced with the challenge of regulating the work of scientists. Recently the world has had to deal with the controversial issue of human cloning. We as humans are not quite sure where this scientific move will lead us to, but we fear the ability of cloning to create a million terrorists.

The world over, people are faced with the weakness of being economical with very vital information. This can be seen in the book, where Utterson attempts to hide his friend’s ugly deeds. He also prevents him from engaging in a dangerous affair with Mr. Hyde.

In the same sense, Jekyll goes an extra mile to conceal Hyde’s identity 2 (Pagden 83-85). Dr. Hyde is hiding his rather despicable scientific work and his beastly behavior. Utterson denied providing information to the police when he discovered about his friend.

He was doing this in order to protect his friend’s integrity and public image. This, in a modern sense, reflects the many different inside jobs within the society. This includes the people living with and hiding evil. People are upholding status quo since no man would ever want to appear any lesser.

The aspect of class is also portrayed. People who can afford excesses are graded as the upper class, while those who can barely afford basic needs for themselves belong to the lower class.

The people in the middle class also exist and they are either graded as upper middle class (since they are closer to the upper class) or lower middle class (just next to the lowest class). In this book, class is reflected in the physical appearance or rather the architecture.

The book describes Hyde’s residence as a shabby looking place. In opposition to this, Dr. Jekyll’s place is luxurious, well kept and majestic.

The modern society, just as in the book, is marred with violence. There are records of various acts of violence. The scenes always involve the culprit – who is Hyde – and a victim who is always an innocent individual. In the earlier chapters of the book, another bad side of Hyde is witnessed.

He is recorded to have trampled on a young girl in the street without any mercy. This was done without any prior provocation 3 (Kiely and Robert 64-65). Just as the novel concludes, we discover that Hyde seriously enjoyed committing those heinous acts of violence.

He drew a lot of pleasure and satisfaction from violence. Through this, we see the imagery that Stevenson’s work depicts on the modern society, which is the constant acts violence.

Even more interesting is the fact that the final victims of Hyde’s violent episodes are Jekyll and himself. Jekyll commits suicide in front of Utterson and Poole. However, it is ironic that, in this case, none of the victims is innocent.

Another challenge that the modern society is faced with is male domination. The novel ( Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ), in a way, depicts a classic touchstone of the Victorian society and its ways of life. The novel reflects what the Victorian society really was.

Most essentially, it proves the fact that this was a male-dominated era. The men had all privileges and possessed the powers that were bestowed upon them by the society. Just as in the modern society, this was a society fighting male domination.

In the entire novel, female characters are very few, if any. All the main characters in the book are male or rather professional gentlemen. This basically reflects what the era upheld and respected – men of status. The modern society is trying to wreath itself out of male domination with worldwide calls for gender equity and gender balance.

The first female that we come across in the novel is the young girl who is literally run over by Hyde. This further depicts the female members of this society as very feeble, helpless and in need of help from others (males) in order for their voices to be heard.

The modern society is also faced with the challenge of people having different sexual orientations. Apart from the book having very scanty information regarding women characters, there is also no information on any of the characters having intimate female relations.

Most of the literary persons suggest that Louis Stevenson, being a worker under the Victorian restrictions, was rather reluctant to relay information regarding its monkish patterns of existence 4 (Calder and Robert 198-199). It can be rightly argued that Jekyll indulged in rather secret pleasures. Another discovery is made about Lanyon, Enfield, Utterson and Jekyll. Firstly, they are all bachelors.

Secondly, they derive their friendship and intellectual stimulation from one another. Many have thus postulated that this absence of active female characterization suggests that Jekyll’s secretive adventures were homosexual tendencies that were so common a practice at the time.

Undeniably, homosexuality is a feature that is of great concern all over the world, juggling between acceptability and rejection.

A new and somewhat radical thinking by Sigmund Freud suggests that the story is about psychoanalysis and issues of the subconscious. He reiterates that the conscious entails everything we are aware of including those that we can talk about and even think of in a rational manner.

The subconscious is the store of feelings, desires, thoughts and memories that are not within the conscious awareness. The subconscious controls behavior and experience even though one may be consciously unaware of the influences within.

Freud also identified the preconscious. He defined it as the memory. He states that the memory is not always a component of the conscious but can be recovered or retrieved with less difficulty at any time.

He believes that humans’ acts and deeds are influenced by a powerful impulse that they will never be able to comprehend. This is visible in the story whereby Mr. Hyde is a representation of Dr. Jekyll’s subconscious. Dr. Jekyll’s conscience desires to be set free from the existing boundaries of humanity.

These boundaries have been cast upon him by the Victorian society 5 (Rogers and sorrel 168-169). The modern man is fighting within himself to be rid of the primitive form, which is a form that is wild, violent and uncouth. People have to conform to the set codes of conduct or face the consequences.

It is rather important to note that the primitive form is the true and genuine version of a person. The modern form has merely been molded by the modern society.

Another modern societal challenge is poor communication. The persons in the book opt to withhold issues of great importance to the society. In the first chapter of the book, Enfield conceals some important information. He refuses to tell about the culprit who ran over the girl on the street.

He claims that he is avoiding gossip. However, later after naming Hyde, the book states that Utterson and Enfield unceremoniously ended the conversation. This silence reflects the moral character of the Victorian era, which was an era that greatly emphasized on the outward appearance and no one would have liked to be identified as a gossiper.

The novel is also a reflection of the modern London City. During that time, the city was undergoing great transformations and in effect did not lack the challenges that come with urbanization. The city appears to be the central place for majority of the novel’s scenes.

The city is described as being idyllic and of much splendor but at the same time, it is also revealed as dangerous, dark and full of mysteries. This is a rather accurate description of the current cities and city lives. The cities are faced with challenges of holding extremities.

The modern city contains the pious people and on the other hand, it contains the ‘wrongdoers’. During the daytime, this city is bubbling with seemingly legitimate activities. However, at night, the city is literally handed over to the masters of the dark who include the prostitutes, gangsters, tricksters and such related persons. At night, the dark is left in the hands of the law enforcers.

Another novelist, Dan Chaon, gives his two cents about the novel. He reiterates that Robert Louis used the setup of a modern city in order to make the situation as realistic as possible. It was a perfect place that Hyde could ever live. He adds that Hyde needed the anonymity. This anonymity could be easily provided by the masses present in the city.

In conclusion, it should be noted that, as Joseph Jacobs wrote in the year 1894, this novel stands next to Gulliver’s Travel and The Pilgrim’s progress as one of the three most intriguing works of allegory in English.

However, this book is set in the Victorian era and is an anticipation of the Twentieth Century. Undeniably, the story strikes the reality surrounding the human nature. This story, as observed from the above discussion, signifies the modern gothic and relates minimally to the traditional Victorian era.

Bibliography

Calder, John, and Lee Robert. A Life Study . New York: Oxford University Press, 1980. Print.

Kiely, Ray, and Lee Robert. The Fiction of Adventure . Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1964. Print.

Pagden, Ann. About Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. Print.

Rogers, George, and Timothy Sorell. The Dual Nature of Man . London: Routledge, 2000. Print.

Stevenson, Reed. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde . New York: Scribner, 1886. Print.

1 Stevenson, Reed. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (New York: Scribner, 1886). 132.

2 Pagden, Ann. About Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987) 83-85.

3 Ray Kiely and L. Robert. The Fiction of Adventure (Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1964) 64-65.

4 John Calder and L. Robert. A Life Study (New York: Oxford University Press, 1980) 198-199.

5 George Rogers and T. Sorell. The Dual Nature of Man (London: Routledge, 2000) 168-169.

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Home of The Brave

Dr jekyll and mr hyde setting essay.

Choose a novel in which setting is an important feature.

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson is a novel in which setting plays an important feature. In the book Dr Jekyll represents good and Mr Hyde represents evil, yet they are technically the same person and come to symbolise the good and evil in all of us. The novel is set in London but draws heavily on Stevenson’s knowledge of his hometown Edinburgh to create a chilling setting which emphasises the themes of good and evil.

Setting is most important as a symbol for the characters of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Jekyll owns a fancy town house with a tumble down lab on the back. The town house is described as having an ‘open fire’ in the front hall. This represents Jekyll as it is warm and inviting and hugely welcoming – all things that match Jekyll’s character. The fact that he can build a fire in his front hall and not just his main rooms suggests he is wealthy and likes to display his wealth. Again it is a symbol for the man himself. We are also told that the street on which his house sits is filled with similar houses – his though is the only one kept clean and tidy and whole, the rest have become slightly messy. This is in keeping with Jekyll’s character as we know he is concerned with his reputation and making himself look good to other people which his house certainly does. Hyde on the other hand is a secretive creature who doesn’t so much lurk in the shadows as lives only in the night. He doesn’t hide from other people but he doesn’t really interact with them either, or encourage interactions. The lab door sums up his character perfectly. Unlike the main house it juts out on an alley street, its windows are covered and the door bears no knocker and hasn’t been cleaned for entry. The windows emulate Hyde’s private nature, he doesn’t want people prying into his business. The lack of a knocker shows he doesn’t want or expect guests. The untidiness of the doorway similarly keeps people from visiting. The text also describes the lab as a ‘sinister block of buildings’ – there is something off about them, just like we are told there is something off or ‘deformed’ about Hyde’s appearance. Setting here, in the form of the house, serves to reinforce the characters of Hyde and Jekyll and further highlights the theme of good versus evil.

The Victorian London setting is important because it is what pushes Jekyll into making Hyde. Stevenson had apparently considered setting his tale in Edinburgh, with its sordid, poverty-stricken old town and glossy, illustrious new town making clear allusions to Jekyll and Hyde’s personalities again. However, in high London society a man’s reputation was everything and he had to behave. It is far easier to explain Jekyll’s actions against the backdrop of London society than Edinburgh’s. Jekyll is repressed by his lifestyle as a rich doctor, it is only as Hyde that he can do what he actually wants and so he creates Hyde. The setting is important here because it is what forces Jekyll’s hand into making an alternative persona for himself.

Setting is important in the initial chapters where Utterson’s dream makes the minotaur and his maze a metaphor for Hyde and his London. We have already had descriptions of Hyde as a ‘juggernaut’ something huge and threatening. This image is built up further with his comparison to the minotaur, a monstrous beast that was used to control and terrorise the Greek town of Minos. Hyde similarly terrorises the occupants of London as he will trample and destroy any who get in his way – the little girl and Sir Carew. London’s twisting medieval streets and fogged new streets become the maze in which the minotaur was kept. You never know when the minotaur or Hyde might appear to hurt you. Setting then becomes a metaphor for the playground of evil.

Setting is also important as Stevenson often uses dramatic epithet to show a change in the mood of a scene to show that something is about to happen. We are often told about the ‘rolling fog’ in the streets of London. It hides Hyde literally and cloaks the shady characters of the night. In the final chapters of the novel the fog becomes a horrible storm, rain lashes and the streets are empty. This adds a sense of foreboding as we know something is going to happen the streets are too physically quiet of people as if something bad is about to happen. Utterson is then escorted by Poole to Jekyll’s house and we finally discover that Jekyll and Hyde are the same person. Setting here was used to suggest and hint that the plot was about to take a turn for the worst.

22 thoughts on “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde setting essay”

Hello, Ms Davidson. I have found your essay about the setting in ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ as I searched for ways to help two Yr11 students with their impending GCSE English Literature exams. What you have written is eminently readable, and so I hope it is OK by you that I copy and paste it into a Word document for the boys to read. I will, of course, acknowledge you as the author, and refer to the name of the website. Kind regards.

I’m happy to have been some help!

Ms Davidson

I also found this really helpful and shared with my class.

Really helpful and understandable thankyou x

I’ve got an upcoming exam and these points are amazing! I hope you do not mind me taking some revision notes from this amazing essay

That’s what its here for! Revise away!

just like the book

Thank you so much for your insightful essay. My students will appreciate alternative points of view which you have laid out so clearly. Thank you and I will acknowledge your essay in my discussions of the novel.

Glad it was helpful!

Rahhhhh this is mad as a student I was reading this to aid with revision and this was absolutely amazing I never knew setting was so important thanks

Happy to help!

Incredibly helpful! Thank you!

i needed to write a book report, and was looking at examples. this one was by far the most helpful! thanks!

Glad it helped!

Pretty lit 🔥🔥🔥

Are you Ruth Davidson, the Scottish politician who served as Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party from 2011 to 2019, and has served as Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Edinburgh Central since 2016?

If I was that would have been extremely impressive to be moonlighting as an English teacher! We simply share a last name that is popular in Britain.

Thank you so much, your points are fantastic, they helped me a lot. Best regards

You’re welcome!

Cheers my g

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EXEMPLAR ESSAY on JEKYLL in 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' NEW 9-1 GCSE ENGLISH LITERATURE

Subject: English

Age range: 14-16

Resource type: Assessment and revision

Last updated

13 April 2022

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This resource is a model essay answering the following question: How is Jekyll presented in ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’?

The essay response in this resource covers all aspects needed for a grade 8/9 answer. More specifically, Textual References, Language, Form & Structure and Context.

It is targeted at students sitting the new 9-1 GCSE English Literature Exam. Teachers are encouraged to purchase this resource so that they can show their students an exemplar answer to analyse and obtain ideas from.

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DR JEKYLL & MR HYDE ESSAYS ON ALL CHARACTERS. NEW 9-1 GCSE ENG LIT

This bundle resource includes essays answering the following questions: How is Hyde presented in ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’? How is Jekyll presented in ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’? How is Lanyon presented in ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’? How is Utterson presented in ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’? ** Each essay is worth 40 marks and this resource is targeted at students sitting the 9-1 GCSE English Literature Exam. Teachers are encouraged to purchase this resource so that they can show their students an exemplar answer to analyse and obtain ideas from. All essay responses in this resource cover all aspects needed for grade 8/9 answers. More specifically, (Textual References), (Language, Form & Structure) and (Context).

DR JEKYLL & MR HYDE ESSAYS ON ALL CHARACTERS, THEMES, SETTING + TENSION. NEW 9-1 GCSE ENG LIT

This bundle resource includes essays answering the following questions: * How is Hyde presented in 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'? * How is Jekyll presented in 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'? * How is Lanyon presented in 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'? * How is Utterson presented in 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'? * How is the theme of appearance vs reality presented in ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’? * How is the theme of duality presented in ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’? * How is the theme of good vs evil presented in ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’? * How is the theme of science presented in ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’? * Write about how setting is used to create suspense and tension in 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.' * Write about how tension is created at different points in the novel, 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.' ** Each essay is worth 40 marks and this resource is targeted at students sitting the 9-1 GCSE English Literature Exam. Teachers are encouraged to purchase this resource so that they can show their students an exemplar answer to analyse and obtain ideas from. All essay responses in this resource cover all aspects needed for grade 8/9 answers. More specifically, (Textual References), (Language, Form & Structure) and (Context).

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Lesson Plan for 'Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde': Writing Prompts & Essay Questions

• Donna Cosmato
• Categories : High school english lesson plans grades 9 12
• Tags : High school lesson plans & tips

Lesson Overview

Students discuss and develop essay topic ideas for Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Grade: High School, duration: 30 – 60 minutes

Objective: Students review basic writing process for essays and brainstorm ideas for essay topics. The emphasis for this lesson is writing compelling thesis statements, holding reader attention, and organizing and writing top-notch essays.

Prior Knowledge: This lesson builds on information gained during unit lesson plans on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde regarding vocabulary, character analysis, and group discussions of the short story.

Teaching Method

Procedure: Excellent essays contain key elements. Start the lesson by reviewing briefly the main elements of essay writing. Here are some suggested topics to cover:

• Selecting topics: topic ideas are specific rather than general with a main idea and two supporting ideas.
• Compelling headline: the thesis statement is like a movie trailer. It hooks the reader into the subject matter.
• Introduction: tells the reader what the essay is about, makes or breaks the essay depending on how interesting or how boring it is. Comparing it to sound bites of information on radio or television helps students visualize the importance of a provocative introduction.
• Outlining research materials: all the research in the world is useless if students cannot organize it and produce a finished essay. This part of the lesson plans shows students how to take notes, and organize materials to prepare for writing an outline format.
• Writing outlines and rough drafts: for this part of the lesson plan, review outlining and rough draft process. Remind students every essay must have a summary to tie information together for the reader.
• Creating the finished essay and proofreading: discuss the writing process and emphasis the importance of proofing essays prior to submitting them. A good tip is to suggest students read the essays out loud to catch grammatical errors.

Writing Prompts and Essay Questions

Try these writing prompts and essay questions in your classroom to help students get started on their essays. Copy the information on the board and brainstorm ideas for other creative essay topics for papers on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

• Describe the relationship between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
• How is the relationship between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde important in conveying the theme of duality?
• How does Stevenson portray the hypocrisy of Victorian society in the novella?
• Dr. Jekyll’s final fate is determined by what events?
• How does Stevenson use descriptive language and suspense to create a mood of terror?
• Why did Stevenson tell the story in third person rather than the first person? How effective is that?
• Analyze the progress of Dr. Jekyll experiments and transformations. How does his character change during the experiments?
• How does Jekyll view his relationship with Hyde? Is his analysis accurate or flawed? Why or why not?
• Analyze the role of the supporting characters. What is their importance and how do they impact the progress of the novel?

By the end of the lesson students should understand the writing process for completing interesting essays. They have selected their topics and started developing thought-provoking thesis statements. Results of the lesson are assessed based on the quality of the students’ essays.

Stevenson, R. L. Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde — Duality in “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”

Analysis of Jekyll and Hyde Duality in Stevenson's Novel

• Categories: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

About this sample

Words: 2426 |

13 min read

Published: Jul 17, 2018

Words: 2426 | Pages: 5 | 13 min read

• Edley, N., & Wetherell, M. (2001). Jekyll and Hyde: Men's constructions of feminism and feminists. Feminism & Psychology, 11(4), 439-457. (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0959353501011004002)
• Doane, J., & Hodges, D. (1989, October). Demonic Disturbances of Sexual Identity: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr/s Hyde. In NOVEL: a Forum on Fiction (Vol. 23, No. 1, pp. 63-74). Duke University Press.(https://www.jstor.org/stable/1345579)
• Rose, B. A. (1996). Jekyll and Hyde Adapted: Dramatizations of Cultural Anxiety (No. 66). Greenwood Publishing Group. (https://www.worldcat.org/title/jekyll-and-hyde-adapted-dramatizations-of-cultural-anxiety/oclc/32921958)
• Becchio, C., Sartori, L., Bulgheroni, M., & Castiello, U. (2008). The case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: a kinematic study on social intention. Consciousness and cognition, 17(3), 557-564. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1053810007000207)
• Lacey, N. (2010). Psychologising Jekyll, demonising Hyde: The strange case of criminal responsibility. Criminal Law and Philosophy, 4, 109-133. (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11572-010-9091-8)

Should follow an “upside down” triangle format, meaning, the writer should start off broad and introduce the text and author or topic being discussed, and then get more specific to the thesis statement.

Cornerstone of the essay, presenting the central argument that will be elaborated upon and supported with evidence and analysis throughout the rest of the paper.

The topic sentence serves as the main point or focus of a paragraph in an essay, summarizing the key idea that will be discussed in that paragraph.

The body of each paragraph builds an argument in support of the topic sentence, citing information from sources as evidence.

After each piece of evidence is provided, the author should explain HOW and WHY the evidence supports the claim.

Should follow a right side up triangle format, meaning, specifics should be mentioned first such as restating the thesis, and then get more broad about the topic at hand. Lastly, leave the reader with something to think about and ponder once they are done reading.

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116 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

Inside This Article

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson is a classic novel that explores the duality of human nature and the consequences of suppressing one's darker impulses. The story follows Dr. Henry Jekyll, a respected and successful scientist who creates a potion that transforms him into the cruel and violent Mr. Edward Hyde. As the two personas battle for control, Jekyll struggles to contain Hyde's destructive behavior and maintain his reputation in society.

Here are 116 essay topic ideas and examples for analyzing The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde:

Discuss the theme of duality in the novel and how it is represented through the characters of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Explore the significance of the setting in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and how it contributes to the overall mood of the story.

Analyze the relationship between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and how it reflects the internal conflict within Jekyll.

Discuss the role of science and experimentation in the novel and how it leads to Jekyll's downfall.

Compare and contrast the characters of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and their respective motivations.

Examine the themes of morality and ethics in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and how they shape the characters' actions.

Discuss the symbolism of the potion in the novel and how it represents Jekyll's desire to unleash his darker side.

Analyze the impact of repression on Jekyll's transformation into Hyde and how it reflects societal expectations of behavior.

Discuss the theme of addiction in the novel and how it relates to Jekyll's reliance on the potion to transform into Hyde.

Explore the role of secrecy and deception in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and how it affects the characters' relationships.

Discuss the significance of the title of the novel and how it reflects the dual nature of Jekyll and Hyde.

Analyze the theme of control in the novel and how it relates to Jekyll's struggle to contain Hyde's impulses.

Discuss the role of gender in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and how it influences the characters' actions.

Examine the theme of transformation in the novel and how it symbolizes Jekyll's internal struggle.

Compare and contrast the adaptations of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in film and literature.

Analyze the impact of society's expectations on Jekyll's behavior and how it leads to his downfall.

Discuss the theme of identity in the novel and how it is shaped by Jekyll's dual nature.

Examine the theme of violence in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and how it reflects the characters' inner turmoil.

Discuss the role of friendship in the novel and how it influences Jekyll's decisions.

Analyze the theme of transformation in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and how it relates to Jekyll's quest for self-discovery.

Discuss the theme of addiction in the novel and how it contributes to Jekyll's descent into madness.

Explore the theme of repression in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and how it shapes the characters' actions.

Analyze the symbolism of the mirror in the novel and how it reflects Jekyll's internal struggle.

Discuss the theme of fate in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and how it influences the characters' actions.

Examine the theme of duality in the novel and how it is represented through the characters' conflicting desires.

Compare and contrast the characters of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and their respective transformations.

Discuss the theme of guilt in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and how it shapes the characters' actions.

Analyze the theme of power in the novel and how it influences Jekyll's decisions.

Discuss the role of religion in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and how it shapes the characters' beliefs.

Examine the theme of control in the novel and how it relates to Jekyll's struggle for dominance.

Analyze the symbolism of the door in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and how it represents Jekyll's inner turmoil.

Discuss the theme of transformation in the novel and how it relates to Jekyll's quest for self-discovery.

Explore the theme of addiction in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and how it leads to Jekyll's downfall.

Analyze the theme of repression in the novel and how it shapes the characters' actions.

Discuss the role of science in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and how it influences Jekyll's experiments.

Analyze the theme of control in the novel and how it relates to Jekyll's struggle for dominance.

Discuss the theme of identity in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and how it shapes the characters' actions.

Explore the theme of repression in the novel and how it leads to Jekyll's descent into madness.

Analyze the symbolism of the mirror in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and how it reflects Jekyll's inner turmoil.

Discuss the theme of guilt in the novel and how it shapes the characters' actions.

Examine the theme of power in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and how it influences Jekyll's decisions.

Explore the theme of fate in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and how it influences the characters' actions.

Compare and contrast the

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